ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 12th Sep 2007

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 12.09.2007

Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

Refik Hodžić, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:

SCHEDULE:

As for the courtroom schedule, a status conference will be held for the Tolimir case this Friday, 14 September at 14:15 in courtroom II.

Next week, a status conference for the Perišić case will be held on Wednesday, 19 September at 8:00 in courtroom II.

The courtroom schedule for the remainder of this week and next week continues with the six ongoing trials for Haradinaj et al., Milutinović et al., Rasim Delić, Boškoski and Tarčulovski, Prlić et al. and Popović et al.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Olga Kavran, Spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor, made no statement.

Questions:

A journalist referred to the recently published book by former OTP spokesperson, Florence Hartmann and whether or not the Prosecutor had any comments on the publication. Specifically, asking if the Prosecutor would confirm that there had been attempts of conscious obstruction of the arrest of Mladić and Karadžić, as alleged in the book. Kavran said that, as a general comment, she would not be address individual allegations in the book. She said in terms of the specific question asked regarding Karadžić and Mladić, taking into account that the OTP would not be confirming or denying any specific allegation made in the book, the Prosecutor has nothing new to say about the criticism of the international community. Kavran stated that the Prosecutor had stated many times in many forums, before the Security Counsel, before the European Union, etc. that she believed the international community had simply not done enough to arrest and transfer to the Tribunal Mladić and Karadžić. The Prosecutor went into some detail when she discussed these issues in the past, saying specifically that the international community failed to arrest Karadžić and Mladić in the years immediately following the war when there was a high military presence on the ground in Bosnia, and where these fugitives were in the later part of the 1990’s. However, one thing should be kept in mind: today is 2007, many things have changed over the past years and it is now squarely the responsibility of the countries in the region in which territory these people may reside at the moment to arrest them and transfer them to the Tribunal.

The Prosecutor’s office strongly believed that Mladić was in Serbia and Karadžić was in the region, said Kavran. Whether Karadžić was in Bosnia - in the RS, or in Serbia or Montenegro - his exact whereabouts were not known - but it is believed that he is in the region. His family is in the region, his support network is in Serbia so it would be very difficult to believe he was elsewhere.

Kavran added that there were also the fugitives Župlanin and Hadzić, four remaining fugitives in total, and that it was the responsibility primarily of Serbia to arrest them and obviously of any other countries that they may be in. She concluded by saying that the failure of the international community to do enough before cannot be an excuse for not arresting the fugitives today.

Asked if the Prosecutor had collaborated in any way with the book, Kavran stated that she had not.

A journalist referred to an article published in a Dutch newspaper, which reports that Bishop Filaret was in telephone contact with Vojislav Šešelj during the bishop’s hunger strike and that Šešelj gave him advice on how he should conduct his hunger strike. Asked what exactly were the conditions in which Šešelj could contact the outside world and was he monitored, Hodžić said that there were Rules of Detention published on the Tribunal’s website clarifying what the rights of accused were. In terms of communication, all accused have the right to monitored communication. In technical terms, the accused could purchase a phone card allowing them to call whomever they want, as long as it was not in breach of the Rules.

Hodžić said that accused defending themselves have the right to unmonitored telephone communication with those they have privileged access to. He stated that this was not the case with Bishop Filaret and has nothing to do with the status of the accused in terms of whether they were defending themselves or not. Hodžić reiterated that the accused have the right to telephone contact as long as it was not in breach of the rules.

If through monitoring it was determined that an accused was telephoning a witness, trying to influence a witness, it would be addressed as a breach of the Rules. Unmonitored communication was limited to those who the accused has the right to contact in a privileged way and these would be the legal associates or consular representatives. This would be ensured through technical means. The accused could not just pick up the unmonitored telephone and call whoever they would like.

Asked if there was anything new regarding the up-coming election in Kosovo in which Haradinaj was expected to head the list of one of the political parties, Hodžić said that the situation had not changed and the Rules remain the same for every detainee in the UNDU.

Asked if Haradinaj tried to participate in any way in the political activities from the UNDU would the Registrar take action, Hodžić answered that he could not speculate. He repeated that, when it came to running a political campaign from the UNDU, the same Rules apply to every detainee.

Asked what the general reaction of the Prosecutor was to the book and if she had read the book, Kavran confirmed that she had read the book.

Asked if it was in the interest of the Prosecutor not to allow Haradinaj to appear as a powerful figure and if the Prosecutor had taken any diplomatic action to try and influence the UNMIK position on Haradinaj's role in the election, Kavran said that the Prosecutor had made it very clear that the OTP was gravely concerned about the announcement that Haradinaj would participate in these elections and be at the top of the electoral list. Of course, these concerns stemmed from OTP’s concerns regarding witnesses, which have been elaborated time and again, most recently in connection with the motion for provisional release this summer.

Kavran added that following the motion filed by Haradinaj requesting provisional release during summer recess, the Trial Chamber denied the motion and in its decision it outlined that this was because they have found that the case was being tried in an atmosphere which the witnesses found to be intimidating and threatening to such an extent that they actively refused to perform their duty to testify before the Tribunal. And in the view of the OTP, the atmosphere described by the Trial Chamber would only be exacerbated considerably if he was allowed to participate in this election. Many witnesses have refused to testify and 14 subpoenas have been issued. The OTP has been invited by the Trial Chamber to investigate in the view of filing contempt charges in respect of some of these witnesses. At least 10 witnesses have told the OTP about direct threats to themselves or their family members in regards to their testimony before the Tribunal. Kavran emphasized that the situation was very grave and that the Prosecutor has outlined again in many of her public statements, at the beginning of the trial and repeatedly throughout the trial that the situation was of grave concern to her Office.

Asked if there were any new details on the Prosecutor’s upcoming visit to Belgrade, Kavran said no, adding that it was a visit to assess what, if any progress had been made in cooperation with the Tribunal in the past three months. As previously mentioned, cooperation did restart at the beginning of the summer but concrete results were expected. And there have not been any concrete results in the last couple of months. Her team was in contact with the relevant people on the ground but the Prosecutor will go there personally and make the assessment towards the end of the month.

A journalist pointed out that there was a recent development regarding the European Union and Serbia finally signing an agreement pending the Prosecutor’s assessment. Kavran said that the Prosecutor was in contact with the EU regarding cooperation and representatives of the EU have made it abundantly clear in the past few weeks that full cooperation with the Tribunal remains a condition so nothing has changed in that respect. Kavran stressed that it was of paramount importance that the remaining four fugitives be arrested and transferred to the Tribubal as soon as possible. The support of the EU and international community at large was absolutely crucial. Kavran said the Prosecutor’s office hoped that the EU would remain firm in its position as it has been in the past. Kavran pointed out that this was what brought results in the last couple of years, 90 percent of the individuals who came into custody in the past few years did so thanks to the pressure from the international community, especially the EU. So this pressure obviously has results and hopefully it will result in the arrest and transfer of the four remaining fugitives to the Tribunal.

Asked if there was any news from the Security Counsel regarding the extension of the Prosecutor’s mandate, Kavran said that the Prosecutor’s current mandate expires on 14 September so news was expected prior to that date.

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